The president and CEO of Visit Lauderdale, the organization tasked with attracting tourists, conventions and major sporting events to Broward County, is not stepping down for another year. But officials say it\u2019s not too soon to start looking for her replacement.<\/p>\n
The job was posted in mid-May, and the search is nationwide in scope.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur next tourism leader will step into a phenomenal opportunity to scale up our convention and leisure travel footprint,\u201d said County Administrator Monica Cepero. \u201cWe are looking for a highly visible, engaged, and strategic executive who can champion Broward County\u2019s incredible destination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stacy Ritter has served in that role since 2016, following two decades of service in elected office, first as a state representative in the Florida House, then as a Broward County commissioner. She said her eventual departure from Visit Lauderdale has never been a secret \u2014 she enters the state\u2019s retirement program on May 31, 2027, and that is when she will leave her post.<\/p>\n
With its miles of beaches, almost year-round warm weather and proximity to the Everglades, Broward attracts<\/a> nearly 21 million visitors a year. Tourists add an estimated $14 billion to the local economy, according to Visit Lauderdale, formerly known as the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau. With that much at stake, the county is willing to pay a new CEO between $156,000 and $249,000 a year for the right candidate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking to compete nationally and internationally,\u201d said Broward Vice Mayor Robert McKinzie, chair of the county\u2019s Tourist Development Council, a board that advises the Broward County Commission on programs and spending proposals.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want this job to be a place where we just send another commissioner on the dais,\u201d McKinzie said.<\/p>\n His comment may have sounded like a swipe at Ritter, but McKinzie said he wanted someone who could carry on the momentum that she established in her 10 years on the job. That, he said, is why an early start on the search is needed. \u201cI expressed my desire to move forward quickly to keep the momentum moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Two people have held the job in the last 30 years: Ritter and Nicki Grossman, who served from 1995 until 2016. Grossman, too, was a commissioner before she was appointed to head what was then the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau.<\/p>\n She replaced an assistant county administrator who held the job since the Convention and Visitors Bureau was founded in 1987.<\/p>\n At the time, Fort Lauderdale was still shedding its reputation as a rowdy Spring Break destination, a decision that left local businesses worried the revenue from the packed beaches would be lost. Grossman was among the local leaders who wagered that hotels would rather rent $125 rooms to couples and families from the U.S. and abroad rather than have 10 teenagers pack themselves into $60 rooms.<\/p>\n \u201cThey honestly undid what Fort Lauderdale was and turned it into something they wanted it to be,\u201d said Grossman, now retired but still living in the county. The county convention center opened in 1991 as part of that strategy.<\/p>\n All but gone were the drunken teenagers who crowded the beaches and State Road A1A for two months a year. In their place came national conventions reflecting a wide diversity of communities, including civic and sports associations. Broward sold itself as part of the destination package for the Super Bowls in 2007 and 2010.<\/p>\n Even the Organization of American States, with representatives from 34 governments in North, Central and South America, chose Fort Lauderdale for its 2005 meeting.<\/p>\n When Grossman announced her departure, a national search left then-County Administrator Bertha Henry with a choice between someone with tourism industry experience and Ritter, someone who knew how to sell Broward County.<\/p>\n Key changes came under Ritter\u2019s leadership, though she does not take credit for all of them. The convention center was expanded, offering more space for larger events. The Omni Fort Lauderdale Hotel<\/a>, adjacent to the convention center, opened its doors late last year, offering 801 guest rooms along the Intracoastal Waterway.<\/p>\n And the bureau changed its name and motto.<\/p>\n \u201cGreater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau was a mouthful,\u201d Ritter said. \u201cWe looked at what others were doing with their branding and marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, Ritter sold the idea of capitalizing on the recognizability of the \u201cLauderdale\u201d name but adding \u201cvisit\u201d as a call to action. For the motto, Visit Lauderdale dropped \u201cHello Sunny\u201d and replaced it with \u201cEveryone under the sun<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Visit Lauderdale worked hard to market the destination to audiences it previously ignored. Officials partnered with CNN for a three-minute broadcast from Pier 66 last New Year\u2019s Eve<\/a>. And when Visit Lauderdale bought advertising time for the 2024 Rose Parade, the agency got its own float <\/a>\u2014 bonus advertising on a national broadcast.<\/p>\n When she first took the job, Ritter joked that she was happy to take a job that left politics behind. Now, she says she was wrong about that: \u201cThis is the most political job I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Her replacement, she said, will have to be someone who can balance the competing demands of elected officials on the local, state and national level.<\/p>\n \u201cMy successor will be able to come in and focus on the marketing and promotion of the destination,\u201d Ritter said.<\/p>\n On top of political savvy, Grossman added three more job qualifications she\u2019d like to see in the next Visit Lauderdale president: A strong marketing background, connections in the tourism industry, \u201cand a tankful of guts.\u201d<\/p>\n